Gossip Girl’s Producers on Blair, Serena, Dan and Skins

‘Gossip Girl‘ returns with new original episodes tonight. When we last saw Manhattan’s most privileged young adults, Serena had vowed revenge on her mother for having her former teacher arrested on bogus statutory rape charges. Chuck vowed to get his family’s business back. In the interim,’Skins‘, a teen show that is generating even more controversy than ‘Gossip Girl’ did in the days of its infamous OMFG advertising campaign debuted. ‘Gossip Girl’s’ Executive Producers Stephanie Savage and Josh Safran revealed their thoughts on ‘Skins’, why two new characters that will shake the show up and why Dan and Blair will find themselves too close for comfort.

They are big fans of ‘Skins’ — the BBC version. Said Savage, “We haven’t seen ‘Skins’. I look forward to watching it. I loved the British version and I’m excited to see what that translation is. My advice [to the 'Skins' producers] would be, don’t break the law.”

Serena and Chuck are on the warpath. Savage reveals, “At the end of [the previous episode]The Townie, they’re both extremely upset with Lily for a lot of different reasons. In the episode that airs tonight they realize they can do something together that will help both of them get revenge on Lily.” Chuck wants more than revenge. He wants his family’s business. According to Safran, “Jack definitely will be showing up at some point. Chuck is willing to do pretty much anything, which I will say is a lot of fun to watch.”

Blair and Dan are interns… with possible benefits Savage hints, “You’ll definitely see more of Blair and Dan together. Whether it results in romance is something the audience will have to wait and see. I think it’s something that Dan and Blair themselves, they’ll be struggling with some of the same issues that the audience is.” It turns out that they will both be interning at W magazine, where they will encounter the magazine’s real-life editor, Stefano Tonchi. Savage explained how the show gets so many cameos from Manhattan’s hippest movers and shakers. “Our show is, on the one hand, this very heightened reality with these over the top storylines, but on the other hand, it’s very much grounded in a real version of New York. The more that we can draw from the real version, the more credibility it gives to the world overall, and the more wish fulfillment and fun for the audience who gets to watch the show and actually go to the ballet, or go to the Boom Boom Room or go to some of these places they wouldn’t normally be able to go and see the kind of people who are at these places, who again, they wouldn’t normally be able to see. It probably started in season one when we were planning Lily’s wedding and we had all these wonderful vendors who wanted to come and be a part of it. We were like, well you may as well come to Lily’s wedding.”

The Captain is out of jail and up to his old tricks. “It’s going to cause complications especially with the Captain living with Nate.”, teases Safran. “It actually widens to be more than just a father-son story. The Captain actually ends up crossing over into one or two other stories. It’s surprising in a lot of ways.”

The exile of Jenny Humphrey is not permanent. Forget the rumors that Taylor Momsen is off the show, thanks to her wild ways. Savage insists, “Taylor continues to be a part of the show. We like how it worked in the first half of the season where the audience didn’t know beforehand when and where she was going to show up. So we are going to do the same this half of the season.”

The Thorpe family shakes up the UES. Raina and Russell Thorpe, played by Tika Sumpter (‘One Life To Live‘) and Michael Boatman (‘The Good Wife‘) will be introduced. Safran explains, “They’re a Chicago real estate family that [wants to] make their mark in New York.” Savage reveals that Raina will catch the eye of one of GG’s eligible bachelors. “At the end of tonight’s episode, she starts a romantic relationship with one of our characters.”